


Rebel by Becoming

by Starshower



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22253494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starshower/pseuds/Starshower
Summary: (8. is largely a direct quote forThe Warrior's Apprentice, except for one sentence and three words.)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 17





	Rebel by Becoming

**Author's Note:**

> (8. is largely a direct quote for _The Warrior's Apprentice_ , except for one sentence and three words.)

1\. The night market was winding down by the time Miles, Alana and Boris made it to the right avenue.  
  


2\. They told him lies like this sometimes as tests, but it couldn't be _true_. They couldn't punish his friends for security breaches as a _test_. . .  
  


3\. For the first time in months, Miles let himself breathe easy. He forced himself to. They hadn't seen a tail on them in weeks, and anyone assigned to Beta Colony in general would be looking at the inorganic kind of weapon.  
  
  


4\. "Hey, me too," she said.  
  
"Who of?" Miles asked.  
  
"Uh, _my_ mum. Our parents decided because they're raising kids together but not, like, dating, they'd clone themselves instead of mixing their genes."  
  
  


5\. Would the Vorkosigan talk to his grandmother in his natural accent, or hers? She forced the issue, saying, "Miles! I thought you were arriving tomorrow."  
  
_Oh **no**_. "I'm not really here yet," he extemporised.

6\. "Distract him _how?_ " Boris asked.  
  
"I don't know, _mug him_ , but do it now," Miles said, peeking through Alana's armpit. "I need to get out of sight somewhere he definitely won't go. Then out of this complex. Off-planet, for preference."

A commotion about an old RG class freighter drew his ear.

7\. "I didn't mean _actually mug him_!"  
  
Alana, the traitor, was _smirking_ at him, but Boris's voice was very calm and mild as he said, "The bodyguard wasn't with him. Only the girl."  
  
Miles tested the blade of the seal dagger with one finger, and drew a single drop of blood. "Have you heard yet that Gelar ghem Estanis killed himself?" he asked them. "Neither have I. Which means we keep going—we'll need a cargo."

8\. Here was a better puzzle than the most reticent of his tutor-doctor-guards. "Sorry things got so messy," Miles apologised. "I realise how it must burn you to have your opponent blunder to victory. I'd have preferred something neater and more tactical myself, like the invasion of Komarr, but I had to take the situation as I found it."  
  
Tung snorted. "Who wouldn't? Who do you think you are, Lord Vorkosigan?"  
  
Miles inhaled a lungful of wine. 

4.  
It's like turning your blood to fire and your mind to lightning, burning until the whole system catches the flame.

It's like becoming an avalanche.

It's like walking into a war zone with nothing and winning both sides in three months.

It's like discovering who you are, and realising you never want to be anyone else.

2\. Three months is enough for the Estanis goons to catch up to you (and Alana to catch up to them). It's not enough for a lifetime, so—you'll dance away, you'll find another contract, and you'll come _back_ , you will, you will, you will.

1\. Barrayaran Imperial Security hears that Admiral Naismith is 20, or 50, and three feet tall, or five and a half, with hair that is black, or brown, or grey; they eventually conclude, despite Lord Vorkosigan's more _fabulous_ theories, that the forged Vorkosigan seal a certain doubly-fired communications officer acknowledged was the inspiration of Ky Tung.

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Miles Naismith really is a Cetagandan clone. Well, not a _clone_ —that would be gauche. Alterations to his genes make him grow up short and frail-boned without any crude chemical trauma; others target the brain to make him malleable and hyper-adaptive, learning everything they pour into him and rather more than that.  
> Which ultimately causes them some problems.


End file.
